Low-invasion operations carried out by inserting a device for diagnosis or treatment, such as a catheter, into a blood vessel or some other tissue are known and performed on a quite often basis. For example, to treat a constriction of the coronary artery of the heart, it is necessary to insert a device such as a catheter into a blood vessel in order to perform therapeutic treatment on the constriction.
This insertion of an instrument such as a catheter into a blood vessel is normally performed through a puncture formed by dissecting or puncturing the femoral region. After the therapeutic treatment is completed, it is necessary to perform a stanching operation to stop the bleeding through the puncture. However, since the blood pressure upon bleeding (bleeding blood pressure) from the femoral artery is relatively high, it is oftentimes necessary for a person involved in the medical procedure to use a finger of their hand to press down on the site for a relatively long period of time.
In recent years, to stop bleeding more readily and with greater certainty, a variety of devices have been developed which are adapted to be inserted through a puncture hole to close a penetrated opening formed in a blood vessel. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,441,517 discloses a puncture closure device which is adapted to be inserted into an introducer sheath. In the device, a filament is held by a ball pressed by a spring at the proximal end of the device, and, when the device is drawn out, the filament slips while retaining a constant tension, whereby the device is drawn out. Finally, in the condition where an anchor portion is disposed at the position of a puncture hole formed in the blood vessel wall, while the filament is pulled, a collagen plug is pushed and compressed by a tamper, whereby the plug is collapsed. In this manner, the hole formed in the blood vessel wall is closed with a closure.
However, the anchor of this puncture closure device is liable to be swung in the front-rear direction and/or the left-right direction and turned about the longitudinal axis, with the result that the posture of the anchor is not very stable. Also, this puncture closure device cannot be used with an introducer sheath left indwelling after a procedure such as therapeutic treatment (e.g., Percutaneous Coronary Intervention: PCI) or after a diagnosis (e.g., Coronary AngioGraphy: CAG) is performed using a catheter which is directly used as the above-mentioned introducer sheath, since the distal end of the sheath is located in the deep site of the blood vessel. Therefore, the sheath left indwelling after the procedure cannot be used as the introducer sheath and so it is necessary to evulse or remove the indwelling sheath and then insert a new sheath for this exclusive use until the distal end is positioned in close contact with the blood vessel wall. Such procedure takes labor and time.